Stand By Me

It's weird to wake up and hear that the New York Times is filing papers with the state today so they can close the Boston Globe and lay off all the employees in 60 days. "Just in case" they don't win the negotiations and win deep concessions and layoffs from the employees. So whatever the result, the Boston Globe will be diminished if not dead. Will my boxes of Boston Globes from championships gone past become collector's items for more than one reason?

Thanks a lot, Grey Lady, for buying our hometown paper with lots of debt. Who could have anticipated that debt financing was a house of cards? Bloggers, that's who, and that's one of the things that's bringing down the newspaper industry. Newspapers didn't see the internet as a threat until way too late and never came up with an effective strategy to compete online.

Where will we be getting our news in 10 years? Change is a coming.

Today I heard a piece on NPR about a musical project called "Stand By Me", one of those great, great songs from the Sixties. Watch the video below of the song, sung by street performers, the filmmakers layering artist upon artist as the song progresses. Something I learned about from public radio. Will public radio still be here in 10 years? I have no answers, just questions and a great video.



Playing for Change.com

Yeah, I've Been Slacking Off

Daily Express
As GW would say (if he were a blogger) blogging is hard work. I've been putting my time and energy into other projects lately; thus the blogging has suffered. 'Cept for today; I'm home with a miserable cold so I've been wandering around the internet for kicks.

So, there will be considerable less posting on this site for the foreseeable future. Other than the blogroll to the right, here are a few other blogs you may enjoy.

Buttered Noodles This woman can really write, and not just about food.

The Consumerist Originally one of the Gawker blogs, it didn't make enough money for Nick Denton and is now part of Consumers Union. They have a post Monday-Friday called "Morning Deals" where they review good deals on consumer products on the web. I got my new TV for a great price with free shipping from one of their posts. Of course, you have to know what you're looking for and scrutinize them carefully. Often the sales are of reconditioned products, which in the real world we call "used".

Hey, It's Free Everyone can use a bargain these days!

I also recommend looking into the Google Reader to follow all the blogs you read. Here's a video tutorial on how to use the Google Reader

7-Year-Old Blogger For Obama

The blog: Report from Planet Stas'

When Obama heard about 7-year-old blogger Stas' Gunkel, he sent him a letter.

Senator Obama’s advice to me:

“Dear Stas, Thank you for your kind words and for your support. I am impressed with your interest in politics, especially at your young age. I encourage you to visit my website kids.barackobama.com to learn more about everything we’re doing to make your family’s future even brighter.

I leave you with three bits of advice that will make your life more fulfilling: Look out for other people, even when it does not directly benefit you; strive to make a difference everywhere you go; and get back up every time you are knocked down.

Thanks again for writing to me. Seeing young people like you who care about making things better inspires me and gives me great hope about the future of our country and our world. Sincerely, Barack Obama”

Here's a report from a Chicago TV station:



Here's one of his posts, from September 27th:

Here is why I'm asking grown-ups to vote for Barack Obama. I am 7 years old so I can't vote......

My mom told me that I shouldn't base my election analysis on "feelings" (I like him/her) or "beliefs" (I share his/her beliefs) but on logical arguments. She asked me to create my own rational explanations for my support of Obama. Here is one of my arguments:

McCain and Palin are not be qualified to be President / Vice President of the U.S. The President's job is to do good for the country and the world. To do good for the country, the President must make smart decisions on important situations.

Governor Palin believes the world is 6000 years old. This is absurd. This is not a rational belief. This is a mistake. Scientists, experiments and evidence have shown this to be completely false. Therefore, she is not rational. If she is not rational, she should not be allowed to be President or Vice President.

Please vote for Barack Obama.

I'm with Stas' on Palin. He nailed it.

I saw this at Brilliant at Breakfast, who found it at Mudflats

Rachel Maddow, Blogger

ThinkProgress: Maddow wears pajamas on air in solidarity with bloggers, says she sees herself as ‘a blogger on TV.’

Last night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow showed a clip of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) complaining about being criticized by “some blogger” sitting “in their parents’ basement.” Maddow — who later said she saw herself as “a blogger on TV” — did the show in her pajamas to show solidarity with bloggers.

In honor of Rachel Maddow, today I will blog wearing black jeans and black Chuck Taylor lowtops. Too bad I don't own any black-framed glasses.

Be Forewarned

The Republican/McCain plan is to get the Democrats to bail out the GOP's Wall Street friends and then run against them for doing it.

- Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo

The first blogger to call this? Duncan Black (Atrios), of course:

And Because It's So Obvious

If the Democrats pass this piece of shit, look for Republican challengers to run against them on it.

Best Posts Of The Week

George Eastman House: Woman in kitchen peeling vegetables
Date: ca. 1910


Mocking the Republican spin machine's latest lie, that McCain can't use a computer because of his war injuries: John Cole's Balloon Juice (coup de grace: he threw out the first pitch at the 2001 World Series.)

Digby at Hullabaloo on Sarah Palin, Feminist Icon (she's not)

A very powerful post from Christy Hardin Smith at firedoglake: In Support of Choice telling her personal story of having a medically necessary abortion.

Around the Blogroll

flickr: SI Neg. 92-96. Date: 1992...Snake motif pottery. ..Credit: Laurie Minor-Penland (Smithsonian Institution)

A few matters I've been meaning to write about:

(1) I've been looking at pottery on the internet lots lately, and found a great post on Emily Murphy's Pottery Blog listing 63 blogs that she reads. 63! Eventually I need to add a category of pottery blogs to my blogroll, but not today as taxes loom.

(2) Alas, the best women's soccer blog, USA Women's Soccer, is no more. That's good news for the blogger, however, as she's been hired by the new Women's Professional Soccer League and will be maintaining the WPS website.

(3) Don to Earth is back! Still not updating a lot, but I love the world's oldest blogger's take.

We Love Lists

The first blog I read every day: Duncan Black's Eschaton



Guardian (uk): The world's 50 most powerful blogs

No DailyKos? No credibility. HuffPo gets lots of hits, but powerful? C'mon. Power is getting Democrats elected to Congress. DailyDKos does that and deserved to be on the list.

Here's Digby

Hullabaloo is one of my favorite blogs. There's always been discussion on the net about exactly who is Digby? Here she is:



hat tip DailyKos

RIP Steve Gilliard, A Fighting Liberal

Steve Gilliard, leftie blogger who ran The News Blog, died on Saturday morning. He was only 42 years old. I was incredibly sad to hear of his death even though I'd never met him. Steve was the first "big" blogger ever to run a post of mine; we exchanged two emails which was the sum total of our interaction; but he was the second blog I read every day (after Big Blue).

What made him special: His powerful voice. He knew more about military history than anyone on the 'net. He hated Rudy Giuliani and knew why Al Sharpton gets respect. He was the only soccer fan among the major bloggers. He loved New York. And even though I disagreed with him part of the time, I respected his point of view all of the time. He will be missed, terrbly.

The News Blog has a Paypal button for anyone wanting to contribute to help his family with funeral expenses.

Jon Swift has a roundup of blog tributes to Steve.

My all-time favorite Steve Gilliard post/manifesto:

You know, I've studied history, I've read about America and you know something, if it weren't for liberals, we'd be living in a dark, evil country, far worse than anything Bush could conjure up. A world where children were told to piss on the side of the road because they weren't fit to pee in a white outhouse, where women had to get back alley abortions and where rape was a joke, unless the alleged criminal was black, whereupon he was hung from a tree and castrated.

What has conservatism given America? A stable social order? A peaceful homelife? Respect for law and order? No. Hell, no. It hasn't given us anything we didn't have and it wants to take away our freedoms.

The Founding Fathers, as flawed as they were, slaveowners and pornographers, smugglers and terrorists, understood one thing, a man's path to God needed no help from the state. Is the religion of these conservatives so fragile that they need the state to prop it up, to tell us how to pray and think? Is that what they stand for? Is that their America?

Conservatism plays on fear and thrives on lies and dishonesty. I grew up with honest, decent conservatives and those people have been replaced by the party of greed. It is one thing to want less government interference and smaller, fiscally responsible government. It is another thing entirely to be a corporate whore, selling out to the highest bidder because the CEO fattens your campaign chest. They are building an America which cannot be sustained. One based on the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. The indifferent boss who hires too few people and works them to death or until they break down sick. Cheap labor capitalism has replaced common sense. "Globalism" which is really guise for exploitation, replaced fair trade, which is nothing like fair for the trapped semi-slaves of the maquliadoras. In the Texas border towns, hundreds of these women have been used as sex slaves and then apparently killed,the FBI powerless to do anything as the criminals sit in Mexico untouched by law.

For the better part of a decade, the conservatives made liberal a dirty word. Well, it isn't. It represents the best and most noble nature of what America stands for: equitable government services, old age pensions, health care, education, fair trials and humane imprisonment. It is the heart and soul of what made American different and better than other countries. Not only an escape from oppression, but the opportunity to thrive in land free of tradition and the repression that can bring. We offered a democracy which didn't enshrine the rich and made them feel they had an obligation to their workers.

Bush and the people around him disdain that. They think, by accident of birth and circumstance, they were meant to rule the world and those who did not agree would suffer.

Liberal does not and has not meant weak until the conservatives said it did. Was Martin Luther King weak? Bobby Kennedy? Gene McCarthy? It was the liberals who remade this country and ended legal segregation and legal sexism. Not the conservatives, who wanted to hold on to the old ways.

It's time to regain the sprit of FDR and Truman and the people around them. People who believed in the public good over private gain. It is time to stop apologizing for being a liberal and be proud to fight for your beliefs. No more shying away or being defined by other people. Liberals believe in a strong defense and punishment for crime. But not preemption and pointless jail sentences. We believe no American should be turned away from a hospital because they are too poor or lack a proper legal defense. We believe that people should make enough from one job to live on, to spend time on raising their family. We believe that individuals and not the state should dictate who gets married and why. The best way to defend marriage is to expand, not restrict it.

It was the liberals who opposed the Nazis while the conservatives were plotting to get their brown shirts or fund Hitler. It was the liberals who warned about Spain and fought there, who joined the RAF to fight the Germans, who brought democracy to Germany and Japan. Let us not forget it was the conservatives who opposed defending America until the Germans sank our ships. They would have done nothing as Britain came under Nazi control. It was they who supported Joe McCarthy and his baseless, drink fueled claims.

Without liberals, there would be no modern America, just a Nazi sattlelite state. Liberals weak on defense? Liberals created America's defense. The conservatives only need vets at election time.

It is time to stop looking for an accomodation with the right. They want none for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?

Update: Steve made the NYTimes, in death if not in life.

NYTimes: Steven Gilliard Jr., 42, Dies; Founder of Liberal Political Blog

Good Reads

SI Neg. 77-10004. Date: 1977...Mammoth, Ice Age Hall, National Museum of Natural History ..Credit: Chip Clark (Smithsonian Institution)
flickr
I'm on the road today, so here's a sampling of online reads:

Boston Globe: Doctor blogs about his own malpractice trial; opposing lawyer finds out, case settles. Arrogant dummy.

New York Times: Greywater Guerrillas in California reusing household water with Rube Goldberg contraptions. My favorite part of the article is on page two: "Two years later, as the Guerrilla Greywater Girls (at the time, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine was a woman) they published a “Guide to Water,” a crude sheaf of photocopies...." So California.

The guy Rachel Paulose replaced as USAttorney for the District of Minnesota, Tom Heffelfinger? The LATimes reports that he was ousted because he was too vigilant in protecting the right of Native Americans to vote.

Digby on the latest suicide at Guantanamo: It's a terrorist attack! Asymetrical PR!

From McClatchy, Joe Lieberman gets a message from the troops he visited in Iraq: "We don't feel like we're making any progress." Joe Lieberman responded "La la la, I can't hear you." Well, not really, but he may as well: "I think it's important we don't lose our will," he said. "To pull out would be a disaster."

From the Consumerist, a comparison of fast food salads v. fast food burgers. Go ahead, have the burger, it's healthier.

News Round-Up, Monday, May 21, 2007

flickr

McClatchy (formerly Knight-Ridder) has an important article on the success Karl Rove and his minions have had in suppressing legitimate votes, all in the name of faux voter fraud.

ThinkProgress: TSA Confiscates Congressman’s Last Meal During Food Stamp Challenge Stupid, stupid TSA liquids rules. Did they think Congressman Ryan was going to blow up the plane with a jar of peanut butter? I can't wait until saner minds prevail. The confiscation of liquids is just as stupid as the 15 years that we endured the Lockerbie questions. (Did you pack your own bag? Has your bag been out of your possession at any point? Has anyone unknown to you asked you to carry anything? Arrgh.)

Great anti-war piece in the Chicago Sun-Times: Bring troops home now (hat tip, Suburban Guerrilla)

TalkLeft: Here Come The Detention Camps: Immigration Legislation No wonder George W. Bush supported the new immigration compromise legislation; it lets him build more gulags.

Brilliant at Breakfast: Why can't a First Lady have a career? Michelle Obama has left her job at a Chicago hospital.

Best health care system in the world, my ass: The LA Times reports the heartbreaking story of a woman who was allowed to die writhing in pain in a hospital ER in Los Angeles County. They had told her to leave and call her own doctor in the morning.

The Boston Globe reports on the resuscitation of a (southern hemisphere, really lost) albatross that was found in a field in Maine.

The WaPo discovers left blogtopia; better late to the party than never, I guess.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

SI Neg. 93-10226.14a. Date: 1993...A series of spectacular fireworks bursts cover the Washington skyline, with the U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in the background. ..Credit: Nicholas Parrella (Smithsonian Institution)
Yesterday was the third blogiversary of Main St. USA. Thanks to all who have read and commented.

Blogtopia* RoundUp, Wednesday April 4, 2007

US Vice President Dick Cheney watches as US President George W. Bush speaks on the "Iraq war supplemental" in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC. Cheney warned Monday the United States faced defeat in Iraq if Democrats succeed in imposing withdrawal.(AFP/Tim Sloan)
President Cheney-Hiding-In-Bushes appoints Swift Boat funder Ambassador to Belgium with a recess appointment, as well as a bunch of other rightwing fruitcakes who are unconfirmable. dailykos

New Hampshire House passes a civil unions bill to give same-sex couples the same rights as married couples. Towleroad

Did Purgegate discriminate against New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias because of his military reserve obligations? One of the reasons given for his firing was spending too much time away from the office. (Tee hee -- that wasn't even the real reason! He wasn't a loyal Bushie! Karma's a bitch.) A federal watchdog agency is investigating. ThinkProgress

Bloggers have fun with Photoshop: Dependable Renegade, John McCain Visits Portland, Maine, Lower Manhattanite, Charlatan (on Steve Gilliard's News Blog), Art Pottery, Politics and Food, The Vice Petulant in the Bushes

*yes, skippy coined that phrase!


DDP

Tens or thousands of visitors would wear any baby bear out.


More Knut photos at der Spiegel.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Friday March 16, 2007

My dream
Having a hard time keeping up the US Attorney Purge? Talking Points Memo has created a complete timeline.

Firedoglake speculates: Will the off-the-books email accounts used by the Rove minions attacking the US Attorneys be the Alexander Butterfield/White House taping that brings down Bush?

Swing State Project says, Farewell, Marty Meehan (D-MA, leaving Congress to head UMass Lowell) and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out with $5,000,000 in your campaign accounts. Gee, I can't think of any candidates who could have used that money in the last election cycle, can you? The Boston Globe is encouraging Marty to donate the money to the school.

The New York Times profiles Richard F. Scruggs (or as lawyers who know him call him, Dickie Scruggs. If you've read any of those John Grisham books about oily Mississippi mass trial lawyers and Gulfstreams, I've always thought they were about Dickie.)

Kevin Drum links to an article about women "choosing" to opt out of the work force. Choice being an illusion; the modern workforce talks a good game about family friendly policies, but they're only friendly to men.

Steve Gilliard of the News Blog is still sick, still hospitalized, still needs our thoughts and prayers.

*y,sctp!

Blogtopia* Roundup, Wednesday, March 14, 2007

U.S. President George W. Bush, left, greets workers during his visit the Labradores Mayas Packing Station in the village of Chirijuyu Tecpan, Guatemala, Monday, March 12, 2007. Labradores Mayas is an agriculture cooperative for indigenous farmers from this region of the Guatemala highlands. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Jurassic Pork at Welcome to Pottersville has a second in his series of FauxNewsChannel screencaps. (I have blog identity and blog title envy. Pottersville! Bedford Falls!)

Rhonda Bourne at Blue Mass. Group with a thoughtful post about Governor Patrick's wife Diane's depression diagnosis.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo says this whole US Attorney purge was designed to get rid of Carol Lam of California who was prosecuting Duke Cunningham, Jerry Lewis, and getting close to Dusty Foggo and Porter Goss and the corruption in the CIA.

Atrios sez the Republican knives are out for Abu Gonzales; he's a dead man walking.

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast points out another Bush privatization initiative gone horribly, horribly wrong: The levee repair in New Orleans:

Another "heckuva job" company gets a nice fat government contract in exchange for its contributions to Republicans, and this one is owned by a buddy of would-be Republican savior Jeb Bush.

Republicans love to say that government doesn't work, and of course the wags say that when Republicans are in power, they go about proving it. It's funny, though -- when Democrats are in office, government programs help people through the Great Depression, we win World War II, the Civil Rights Act is enacted, there's the longest economic expansion in American history. Democratic presidents leave little to no deficit, and Americans who are not among the wealthiest are almost always better off under Democrats than they are under Republicans.

So isn't it time we stopped trusting the government to these people?

*yes, skippy coined that phrase!

Blogtopia* Roundup, Monday, March 12, 2007

Must view post of the day: Welcome to Pottersville with a series of screencaps of the FoxNewsMachine's fairly unbalanced news coverage. They are serial liars and should never be trusted. (It also reminded me of these pictures which someone photoshopped a few years ago.)

Digby on Russert and the craven corporate media as revealed by the Libby trial. I had forgotten that James Carville and Tim Russert's son have a sports radio program together. No wonder Mary Matalin could tell Scooter Libby that Russert hated Chris Matthews. Pillow talk!

salon.com exposes the Army for sending injured soldiers back to Iraq. (Send the twins, I say.) See, also, Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast, who says the only way to support these troops is to demand impeachment.

And while you're at salon.com, head over and read Glenn Greenwald's piece Our right-wing arbiters of masculinity with a couple of hilarious pictures of manly wingnuts as an added bonus.

ThinkProgress reports that Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) has called on VA Secretary Jim Nicholson to resign. You go girl.

MCCASKILL: [] And with all due respect to the head of the Veterans Administration, this is a man that was chairman of the Republican National Committee. The appearance isn’t right. You know, this looks like a Brownie situation. Let’s put somebody…

SCHIEFFER: Brownie as in FEMA.

MCCASKILL: As in FEMA. You know, this is a political appointment. This is somebody who has spent a whole lot of the last few years defending everything about the White House. Really, that’s not the right person to be leading the agency that’s supposed to protect our veterans.

And I really think it’s time we put somebody in charge of the Veterans Administration whose first priority are the veterans and not the politics surrounding the agency.

Talking Points Memo is following the fired US Attorney story most closely. NYTimes called for Abu Gonzales to resign in an editorial yesterday.

*yes, skippy! coined that phrase.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Tuesday, March 6, 2007

2.3 million Iraqis have left Iraq: Wampum: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah

It doesn't matter which one you pick. Every resident has to leave. That is the size of the Iraqi diaspora since the regime graduated from civil disenfranchisement to foreign wars. Its in Le Monde, and it doesn't matter that the press and the political class in the US won't touch the subject.

The Cherokee Nation has voted to eject the descendants of slaves: Professor Kim's News Notes: Cherokees eject descendants of their former slaves. More on the subject from Wampum: Nation and Race.

When Maureen Dowd mocks Democrats, is she so different from Ann Coultergeist? Daily Howler doesn't think so: WHEN YOU READ DOWD, YOU’RE RIDING WITH COULTER

Digby piles on (if you're not reading Hullabaloo every day, you're the poorer for it): Digby: Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah

The underlying premise of the modern conservative movement is that the entire Democratic party consists of a bunch of fags and dykes who are both too effeminate and too masculine to properly lead the nation.

Jill points out that Halliburton (can you believe it, upstanding corporate citizen Halliburton?) has been caught drilling for oil in Iran: Brilliant at Breakfast: Halliburton's tentacles are everywhere

And this is not from the blogs, but is truly unbelievable. Dana Milbank notes in today's Washington Post (scroll down to bottom) that a soldier with a prosthetic arm was barred entry from the Congressional hearing on the Walter Reed and our scandalous treatment of wounded veterans yesterday, because the seats were "preselected". The seats were also empty.

*yes, skippy coined that phrase!

Addition to Blogroll

A few months ago I saw a link to this blog & bookmarked it. Can't remember for sure but I think I saw it on BoingBoing. [Yup, here's their post.] I'm sure Don Crowdis is one of the oldest bloggers out there. He doesn't even own a computer, just writes his posts out in longhand and mails them to a relative who posts them for him.

Don To Earth
A Nonagenarian (90+) Ponders Life, the Universe, and Aging

Yesterday he posted about having survived the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb in 1917. I had never heard of this. A ship loaded with bomb-making materials exploded in Halifax Harbor, and over 1500 people were killed from the explosion.

I was four years old, and survived physically unscathed, but my mother lost an eye and my aunt was thoroughly crippled. The large family across the street was not so fortunate -- all but one died at breakfast. It was, and still is, the dividing date in my life. During the next two and half years, I lived in seven places, three of them foster homes.

All this made me anything but a headstrong hero about anything. I learned I was not the boss anywhere, and this made me a very good boss later on, as a teacher, as the head of museums, and as the chairman of associations of various sorts. I was careful, and preferred to be understated until I showed my hand, although I know my real nature was to take charge. The Halifax Explosion took my DNA and made me what I became. On December 6 each year, I am very conscious of all this.

Read the rest, he writes well and has an interesting and informed perspective on things.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Friday January 12, 2007

Crawford Caligula
Best post title of day: Brilliant at Breakfast:

Potent Military Victories To Make Benefit Glorious Image of the Crawford Caligula

Mmmmm.....Crawford Calugula....must use often.

The Left Coaster reports that Pelosi and Hoyer have sold out seniors by watering down Dem changes to the Medicare Part (D)isaster pharmaceutical bill. Since the bill will be vetoed by Crawford Calugula anyway, I can understand Dems saving their energies for more productive fights.

In case one of those lizard brain Bush supporters tells you the Congress gave Bush the authority to attack Iran, tell 'em they're wrong. The foolish Authorization to Use Military Force in Iraq (AUMF) which all those dummies in Congress voted for, was the second draft of that bill: The first draft was not limited to Iraq, so it was soundly rejected by Congress. Crawford Caligula can't rely on the AUMF to attack Iran, therefore. Not that he cares about Congress. Link is to Dover Bitch, via Digby.

Steve Gilliard says Bush will leave in disgrace.

Glenn Greenwald, outlines Bush's belief that he has the power to attack Iran without Congressional authorization; he doesn't, but he thinks he does. Woe to the world.

Did anyone else hear Condoleeza Rice say 'augmentation, not escalation' yesterday, and think breast implants? Dependable Renegade did.

Greg Sargent eviscerates Tom Friedman, who really needs eviscerating. Is there a bigger waste of column space at the New York Times? Oh, there's David Brooks.

It's all about the corporate Benjamins: IRS closing corporate audits, taking a fraction of the millions US is owed. Expand this ThinkProgress post, 8th item down.